The Hundred draft 2023: how to watch on UK TV, how does selection work - which players will feature?

The Hundred draft is only a few hours away and will see teams rush to grab their star players ahead of the return of the explosive cricket tournament which begins again this summer.

Players such as Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson and England’s Sophia Dunkley will all be available to select tomorrow evening. This is the first year there will be a women’s draft and Dunkley, was released by the Southern Brave back in February, is excited for what this will mean for the competition: “Hopefully the draft as a whole will be a really exciting thing for the women’s game going forward, changing teams up a little bit and adding to the competition.

“We all saw how exciting the WPL auction was and how much traction that got so hopefully The Hundred draft will be able to do something similar and make the competition more competitive.”

Here is all you need to know ahead of The Hundred 2023 draft...

When is The Hundred 2023 draft?

The Hundred draft takes place tomorrow, Thursday 23 March 2023, and selections will take place between 4pm and 6pm GMT.

How to watch The Hundred 2023 draft

Those wishing to watch the draft live can do so through Sky Sports. The draft can be found on Sky Sports Cricket, Sky Sports Mix or via a free stream on skysports.com and the Sky Sports App.

Those wishing to sign up can do so with a deal offering subscriptions for eight dedicated sports channels from £24/month. Sky Sports, Netflix and Sky TV can also be purchased from £46/month.

How does the draw work?

Men’s draft

All eight franchises had the option to retain up to 10 players from their 2022 squads as well as their centrally-contracted England men’s player. Most teams did just that apart from the Northern Superchargers and Welsh Fire. The Superchargers retained nine plus Test captain Ben Stokes while Fire kept only five of their players and centrally-contracted Jonny Bairstow after a poor tournament last year saw them lose all matches.

Fire are now set to be the busiest side on Draft day with Michael Hussey’s side ready to add eight players to their squad. The Superchargers will add four while Southern Brave, Oval Invincibles, Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Manchester Originals and Trent Rockets will all have three.

The sides will pick in reverse order from where they finished last season meaning Fire will be first up followed by Brave, Superchargers, Invincibles, Phoenix, Spirit, Originals and defending champions Trent Rockets. In early July, the men’s teams will then add two more players to their squads through the wildcard draft and these are likely to be stars who have impressed well in the 20-over Vitality Blast.

Women’s draft

This is the first year the women have had a draft and the teams will expand their squads to eight players this week before the final seven spots are filled on an open-market basis. The women’s teams could retain up to four of their 2022 squads and only Welsh Fire went lower keeping just three.

Similar to their male counterparts, the Fire women’s side finished last and will therefore get first pick followed by Spirit, Originals, Superchargers, Phoenix, Rockets, Brave and two-time champions Invincibles. No women’s team can sign more than three England-contracted players.

What’s new in 2023?

Aside from the women’s draft, this year will also see a ‘Right to Match’ option. This enables a team to re-sign one of their 2022 players that they previously released when a rival team offers to buy them. Teams using this ‘right to match’ must offer the same salary as the player’s prospective new team and if they’ve already filled up all their slots at that price band, the option will not be available to them.

Which players are available in the draft?

In the women’s draft, England internationals Sophia Dunkley, Danni Wyatt and Kate Cross will all be available to select along with international stars such as Australia’s Megan Schutt, India’s Jemimah Rodrigues and South African batter Laura Wolvaardt.

The men’s draft will see Reece Topley, David Willey, Olly Stone, Tom Banton and Matt Parkinson on the list as well as international sensations Mitchell Starc, Baba Azam, Trent Boult and Andre Russell.

When is The Hundred 2023?

The tournament proper gets underway on Thursday 1 August with Trent Rockets taking on Southern Brave in a double-header. Tickets are now on sale on The Hundred website and we are currently in the priority window two - this priority is for those who have previously purchased tickets for the tournament.